what we are producing is 8% success. >> kids aren't learning but school spending is through the roof. why? what has gone wrong? the bureaucracy is what is wrong. the blob people call it. >> it is the blob. >> like the reformers are up against the hut. the unions and paper pushers. >> let's detroy the system. good, bring on the creative destruction. who would disagree? >> shame on you! >> teachers unions disagree and they are mad at me. and mad at reformers who care about test scores. city schools are terrible because of unions like yours. >> our test scores are not what we choose to focus on. >> how do you know if they are learning anything. >> i know my kids are learning when i look in their eyes. >> give me a break. the blob also opposes charter schools. >> over my dead body they going to come there. >> unions are mountain because some charters can fire bad teachers. >> i call it bringing up a person's future. >> a teacher wants to teach. this actor says teachers near

tenure? >> why else would yoshiko a [ bleep ] salary. >> most professions don't have tenure. at least now there is some good news. at some schools where teachers can be fired, kids learn. >> give us the worst school anywhere in america and we will jut perform the other schools in five years. >> how good are the test scores at his charter school? >> there isn't even a word for it. >> unions say such charters avoid problem kids. >> no way, i love food. >> sadly, they have won the show and made us stupid in america. >> school spending has tripled over the past 40 years. we now spend much more than other countries but what do we get? fancier schools, more assistant principals but student learning no improvement. look at t. there is the line. for 40 years. scores have been flat.

much more money. no improvement. this is awful. but, there is some good news. around america, some very cool things are starting to happen. but school is boring. >> no, it's not! >> yes, it is. i know. i went to school. grade school was boring. so was high school. so was princeton. except for the party parts. but fourth grade you have to learn reading and writing. that is work. >> reading is work. but it is rocking awesome! >> rocking awesome? and these kids say school is fun. >> yes. >> yes. >> how is it fun to learn? >> they just teach us in a fun way. >> so you guys look forward to going school in the mornings? >> yes. >> these kids attend one of the new you charter schools. free public schools but charter lets the schools escape the bureaucracy of regular schools including teacher union rules.

this school enrolls the inner city kids bureaucrats label at risk of failure but these kids learn. >> devon is 100% on top of her game right now. >> going to our school is a ticket to educational success. >> this woman runs several charter schools. owl get outstanding test scores. >> how can you do this all with the same money the public schools less? >> we do it with less. 4 and $6,000 less per child. >> how for less money do they get the kids so interested? >> you are interested in math and -- >> yes, reading. >> writing. >> but learning is work. >> it don't matter. >> the school day here is longer. kids often stay until 5:00 p.m. charter teachers can be asked to work more than the union would have allowed. they told us they don't mind. >> but you are going to burn out. why aren't you ticked off? >> that is not an option for us because we have our eye on the prize with these kids.

>> they use all sorts of new teachin techniques. sometimes they wear ear pieces during class and they are are coached by their losses. >> telling me things that i don't see if i don't think of a great question in the moment my principal is able to kind of feed that to me through the ear piece. >> we kind of view teachers as athletes in the olympics and they need constant support and coaching to be at the top of their game. >> kids this school constantly wave their hands around. it confused me but then the students explained it is called active listening. instead of interrupting class to say can i go to the bathroom or i agree with that the students make hand gestures. >> what is the symbol for agree. >> like this. >> high test scores made these charters so popular that parents line up hoping to get their kids admitted. >> this line goes on and on.

forever. goes around the block. >> so many applicants, but not that many spaces. >> so what do you do when you have thousands of people and just a few hundred slots? they hold a lottery. >> the winners are happy. sadly, there are many more losers. on the other end of america in oakland, california, another charter chain gets similar top results using different methods. >> here is what i say. give me the worst school in oakland, black, mexican, polka dot, give us the worst school anywhere in america and we will take it and we will outperform the other schools in five years. >> ben chavis created the model of the american indian public charter school right in the heart of a rough neighborhood. >> now, these are hard workers here. >> the kids at american indian schools now have some of the highest test scores in california. >> and you can do that on the same amount the state gives

every school? >> we get less. we get less than every other school. >> the kids in american indian public charter schools are scoring so far above the average for the state for public school children that there isn't even a word for it. >> they use different techniques from the charters in harlem. here at american indian they pay some kids to tutor other kids. >> we hire our students and we pay them. >> thank you. >> they are excited. they going to make some money. >> chavis is politically incorrect. >> what are you going to study. >> science. a mexican in science? good for you, honey. you will be a rare bird. >> he has been criticized for imposing strict rules. >> you got in trouble, didn't you, boy? >> they are stricter because they really rant to us succeed. >> a teacher madthis student do pushups in the hallway because they didn't follow directions. >> you have to try hard when you are here. >> i hate saturday school. >> my other school we didn't have as much homework.

we had one page of homework but here we have six subjects of homework and the teachers were a lot nicer and here they are a lot mean. meaner and yet no student has been expelled since the school began in 2000. no way. >> i love fools. i love the kids who get in it trouble because you can take a kid who is acting like a fool or gets in trouble and use them as an scam. >> it's cruel your critics say. a 6th grade student acts up in class he will be sent to sit on the floor in an 8th grade class. >> it is true. embarrassment people keeps people in line whether we admit it or not. >> and even women schoo gym cl. >> at the old school we played games during gym. >> you fired people. >> you fired a teacher after one day. >> she was incompetent. >> you could tell in one day? >> yes. she was is incompetent.

>> last year i thought i was going get fired a few times if i'm doing a gd job it is over and it could happen at the drop of a dime. >> that is not true at most government run schools. especially union ones. union teachers are happy that they can't be suddenly fired but the charter teachers can be. >> you can get canned in a moment. does that bother you? >> if i'm not doing my job per se and i was tired for that, so be it. >> fy was is a doctor and i wasn't good, i mean i wouldn't have a job. no one would come to me, right? >> i would hope not? >> you cannot maintain quality unless you can fire people says this charter founder. >> it is as many as we must and as little as we can. >> have you fired more than ten? >> in three schools in eight years, yes. >> but while bad teachers might get fired good teachers are given freedom. >> they can choose their textbooks and their teaching methods as long as they every quarter and every year make sure that the students are learning what they need to

learn at the end of the bay in harlem, 43% of 8th graders get passing grades on state math tests. 100% of her kids passed. if such charters work why aren't there more of them? >> because unions and supporters of traditional schools hate charters. this protest occurred outside one of eva moscowitz's charters. >> i hope it is not personal. but it may be. >> this union boss doesn't want charters in what he calls his school. >> over my dead body they are going to come there. >> does he get to stop them? when we return, i will confront the unions about that and other strange things union losses said like we shouldn't judge teachers by how well students do on tests. >> how how do you know if they are learning anything? >> i know my kids i learning when i look in their eyes? >> what? more stupid in america when we return. there'only one bottle left !

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those great new charter schools we showed you. in i just wish there were more of them. more competition because competition makes everybody better. but there are some people who don't like my saying that. >> shame on you! >> shame on you! >> the teachers' union. five million members strong. this group is mad at me. >> we are here to demand an apology from 20/20's john stossel. >> i had done another show called "stupid in america" that said it was impossible to fire bad teachers. the union boss stai said becauf my program. >> educators all over the country feel that they have been kicked in the teeth. >> they were surprised when i came outside to hear them. the union said i should be

educated. >> the crowd liked the idea of me teaching for a week. >> see john teach. see john teach. >> i think i surprised them again when i said okay, i'll teach. but then they changed their mind. union president randy wine garten won't talk to me any more but t two other union loss did. the head of union teachers >> i think i know why the union

doesn't like testing. >> your results are awful. they are among the lowest in the nation. >> you make an argument that it is the lowest in the nation based upon the test scores. now, i would say that ours can get better but i he would say that ours are -- >> your predecessors, the unions have been saying that for years. >> i think the unions have a pretty strong history of advocating for high quality public education. >> but not achieving it. >> our test scores are not what we choose to focus on. we choose to focus on teaching kids. >> you but ho but you how do yw if they are learning anything if you don't test them and compare. >> i know my kids are learning when i look in their eyes. >> the protests had celebrity support. actor matt damon. he was asked from reason tv about the rules that make it hard to fire a teacher. >> in acting there isn't j security. why do you think there is that in teachers.

>> do you think job insecurity makes me work hard. i want. >> you take it mba style thinking, right? >> mba style. business school idea. >> well, yes. charter schools, vouchers, even obama's race to the top are based on the idea that competition is good. if kids are free to take their school money to any school, competition among schools including for profit chains will force all of the schools to get better or go out of business. the best schools will expand. but the unions don't like that market competition. >> there is a profit motive behind all of the extra testing. >> we need to get the corporations out of the schools. >> the union says school of choice would enrich corporations but further immoverrish poor teachers. ♪ >> teachers paid enough? >> no. >> you got some teachers making

over $100,000 a year. >> and they aren't making enough. >> matt damon agrees with that. his mom is a union teacher. >> a teacher wants to teach. why else would you take a [ bleep ] salary and really long hours. teachers make a [ bleep ] salary? well, maybe to matt damon. but today american teachers make more per hour are than accountants, nurses, architects. >> i can guarantee you this, it is not about the money. >> kevin is a former d.c. politician. >> when i was chairman of the education commission on the d.c. council i gave the school system 300 million new dollars. the teachers got more money than ever to educate 1,000 fewer kids and the test scores went down. they grew central office. they had more deputies to the assistant to the deputy to the assistant. they grew the bureaucracy. >> and the former district chancellor found that the bigger bureaucracy didn't even get school supplies to the kids.

>> walking in to school and seeing that there were no books in the library. kids didn't have supplies and pencils and then the following week i visited the warehouse of the school district where there were boxes and boxes of books and scissors and blue glue and computers. >> why didn't they get to the school? >> exactly. that was the question. >> why didn't they get to the school? >> it was just a complete and utter sense of dysfunction and the lack of accountability. >> the reason they call the school bureaucracy the blob, it is like this blobbyjaba the hut thing that can't be budged. the blob is the teacher's union, janitor's union, the school board bureaucrat and if you try to make a change the blob says. >> we don't do that here. we recruitin requisition downt. it is crazy. >> both union leaders escaped that bureaucracy. >> you went to private school.

>> that's correct. >> kind of made me feel that i had better do pretty good in that school or else. >> i will confront the union losses when we return. why can't other people have the choice they had? also, why does it cost a third of a million dollars to fire just one union teacher? what is wrong with these people? the stronger the rapids, the more we loved it. took some wild risks when i was young. but i was still taking a risk with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more, and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol, stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol to 60 percent. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patits who have heart diase or risk factors for heart disease. [ female annncer ] lipitor is not for evyone,

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look who sent their kids to private school. nan nancy pelosi. hillary clinton. al gore. the. >> the people who are making the rules already have choice. you know, the politicians and i used to be a politician.

the politicians have a choice. >> yet all the politicians who sent their kids to private school oppose school of choice for regular people. >> thank you for taking my question, president obama. i wanted to know whether or not you think that mallia and sasha would get the same high quality rigorous education in a d.c. public school? >> if i wanted to find a great public school for malia and sasha to be in we could probably maneuver to do it. >> but apparently he didn't want to. the president now sends them to sidwell friend. the same school the vice president's grandkids attend. tuition, $32,000 a year. and the union leaders? >> you went to private school. >> that's correct. i graduated a catholic high school. >> the head of newark's teacher's union. a tough negotiator. at this school board meeting when the chairman said he used up his speaking time he marched up to the front to demand more saying my union contract mandates seven more minutes

than i got. >> the rigidity of the stupid union contract is why the kids suffer. your union is the problem. >> i think you know better than that. >> he opposes letting kids escape his rules by, say, allowing them tottend charter schools in existing school buildings. >> over my dead body they are going to come there. i'm going to be there and ndtolyry a a s sp them. there is certata things can't emulsify. >> this is no room? the half empty schools. >> there is t half empty schools. >> he says charters favor rich kids but newark public schools spend almost $400,000 per classroom and the charters get less. >> not that much less. according -- >> but they get less. it is hardly the rich versus the poor. >> happy for them. >> then let them into your schools. >> don't want them in our schools. why should you be -- >> you are not happy for them

then? >> does fox and cnn are they in the same building? i don't think so. >> but fox and cnn can't been aish the competition. competition is good. competition is why we have fox and cnn and msnbc. whistling you have a choice of what channel you are going to watch or what school you attend, competition makes things better. he understands that about his own education. >> my mother paid for me to go to it and it kind of made me feel that i had better do pretty good this that school or else. >> sounds like you are argue against the unionized public school. >> i'm not arguing against them. >> most of the independent schools are still catholic schools doing a great job for less than half of the money you spend. >> i wouldn't say that. >> $17,000 versus $5,000. >> john, tell them to have another bingo game and get it over with. >> catholic schools fire bad teachers but government run schools really can't because

teachers get tenure. why have tenure. most professions don't have tenure. >> when you got into original are niced crime and got to be a made person there was a ceremony but not like tenure. >> kind of like organized crime you are in forever unless you die or are kill. >> there is that perspective of it. you are good teacher there shouldn't be a problem with it. >> here is one problem. not every teacher is good. some are really lousy. >> it is impossible to fire these tenured teachers. >> whbut why? >> because there are a million steps. >> there haven't. there is only one. >> it is not one step. it is all these steps. >> let's see. >> this the list of steps required to fire a teacher in my town. this is why most principals don't even try. they look at the list of of appeals and just give up. or they push the worst teachers to transfer to another school.

stouth a common way to avoid the schools there is even a name for it. dance of the lemmon. it would be funny except it leaves some kids stuck with terrible teachers. >> this is crazy. >> this former police investigator says it takes years to fire even an abusive teach. lots of people said he hit kids. the kids said it. >> lots of people said he hit them and other teachers said that there were present in the classroom. took me four years and $283,000. a $127,000 in legal fees. plus what it cost to have a substitute fill in all while he is sitting home having popcorn. >> so being paid by the state. >> still being paid by the district. >> he couldn't even fire the teacher who faked his doctorate. and -- >> he went to sleep in class. >> and he was quite disturbed when the supervisor came in and woke him up. >> he complained. >> it never ends. it never ends. >> when we return, meet someone who successfully fired hundreds of teachers.

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now, back to john stossel and "stupid in america." as we see, education in america is a mess. what will fix it? who might fix it? >> somebody needs to fix this! you you can do it! >> oprah thinks this man can fix it. >> thank you, michee. i'm rooting for you. >> michelle is michelle reid. >> michelle reid acting chancellor. >> five years ago, the mayor picked her to manage d.c. schools. >> you would never run a school system before. >> i had never run a school before. and that is why people thought that adrian was nuts. i was a 37-year-old girl from toledo, ohio.

>> and people said what? who? >> yeah. people said he's lost his mind. >> her friends said she had lost hers. >> i have two kids. two daughters, 9 and 12 and they -- i put them in the d.c. public schools. >> the schools were a disaster. test results among the worst in america. chancellor reid quickly learnd that although only 8% of the kids were on grade level, there was something odd about how the teachers were ranked. >> when i looked at the performance evaluations of the adults in the system. >> how good is the adult doing. >> right, how good are the teachers doing, i found that 95% of the adults were being rated as doing a great job. so how can you have a system where all of the workers are thinking we are doing a great job and a great job for the kids and what we are producing for them is 8% success? >> she visited schools and saw empty classrooms. >> i walk into this one school and go to the first classroom. five kids in the classroom.

same classroom. nine kids. third, three kids. seven kids. i'm thinking what is going on. finally i get to the fifth or sixth classroom and ask the teacher. i said where are all the kids? and she said well, it's friday. i thought really? i just couldn't believe that was the answer. so i said is that all? and she said no. >> i thought great, okay. she is going tell me some are on a field trip or something like that. she said it's raining, too. >> turned out that not every classroom was empty. attendance varied by teach. i'm walking through and finishing my visit and i walk into one classroom and there are 30 kids in the classroom. there in fact are not enough desks for the number of kid there's. there was kids sitting on the radiators and what not. i go to one of the kids and i said what do you think about the teacher. he said this is my best teacher, bar none. as i was leaving the school, and this was about at 10:00 in the morning that young man and two of his friends were walking

out of the school in front of me. so i tap them on the shoulder and i said excuse me, where do you think you are going? >> they said our first period teacher is great so we came to school but our second period teacher is not so good so we are going to roll. >> i thought this is not the picture that the american public have in their minds of true wants. they are making a conscious decision to wake up early and come to school for first period because they knew they were going get something out of it and then to leave after that because they weren't going to get any value out of it. >> and the great teacher gets paid no more than all of the other teachers. >> that's right. gets paid no more. if we were doing seniority based layoffs would have got laid off first. >> she decided to pay good teachers more and fire bad teachers. >> that did not go over particularly well. >> reid must go. >> a few you weeks into this i was visited by my then general counsel and he comes rushing

into my office and says you have got to stop firing people. i said why? i mean if the people are not doing the jobs that he this are supposed to be doing, we need to move them out. and he said welcome to d.c. public schools where we never fire any one. >> but you did fire a lot of the people. >> eventually we did. >> she found a 90 day loophole that let her close some lousy schools and fire some teachers. >> nothing short of a firestorm surrounding the future of the school system. >> 30 principals this week. >> it was a plan, a plot even before she took the job to get rid of people who have been around who have tenure. >> you fired. >> closed 15% of the city schools. fired your own daughter's principal. >> that was a chilly night at home. >> she upset families, communities, students and teachers. a lot of people got fired. she. >> she said they deserved to be

fired, the system needs change. >> many of those is thought she needed to be fire. >> people really hated you. hate you still. >> yeah, yeah. i was the wicked witch of the west. they called me the hatchett lady. the dragon lady. the topper term are nateer. >> big bad witch. time magazine even put you on the cover with the broom. >> i took the broom to mean sweeping house. >> the blob didn't want their house swept. the union says poorly performing teachers need a second chance. >> don't you have some union teachers who are just lousy? >> we need to lift up the low performers and help them do better. >> why not fire them. sorry, maybe teaching is not for you. >> there is a cost to firing teachers. the quality of life of that person is deeply affected by that termination. >> so therefore nobody should ever be fired? >> well, what we should do is help people improve their skills.

>> people would say to me, well, if a teacher is not effective, you should talk about spending the time and effort to professionally develop that person, right. i would say okay, but whose children are we going to put in that classroom for this year? >> who are you going to practice on? >> right, who are you cboing to say oh, it didn't work out, sorry. you only get one chance at first grade. i made the decision we will do the layoffs by quality instead of seniority. and this really upset the apple cart and people, you know, were protesting. >> why would it upset the apple cart? it is just common sense to do it by quality. >> common sense to you and me but it was absolutely counter to what the district had always done. it is the way that unions operate, right. i mean seniority. >> it cheats the good young teacher, don't they get mad? if forget the young teachers. it cheats the kids. >> kids were a little less

cheated under reid. test scores went up when she was chancellor but in the end the union won. >> you can get her out. >> we are going to fire her. if we have to be here every day all night we will. >> the mayor who appointed her was voted out and when lost, reid quit before she was fired. >> michelle reid becomes a casualty of d.c. politics. so so she lost in d.c. but elsewhere in america all sorts of new schools are succeeding of new schools are succeeding and exciting things are of new schools are succeeding and exciting things are do you have an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem? are you taking warfarin to reduce your risk of stroke caused by a clot? you should know about pradaxa. an important study showed that pradaxa 150mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regular blood tests. pradaxa is progress. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding.

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people who try to start charter schools often say oh, bureaucrats make is so hard and put up all of the obstacles and there that is why there aren't enough chart ares yet to have a real market except in one town most kids now attend charters. how did that happen? >> hurricane katrina on track to make a direct hit on the low lying city of new orleans. >> it happened because of a hurricane. >> all eyes on new orleans. not only a famous city but below sea level. >> the entire city will be under water. >> mother nature is in charge and now mother nature has dealt one horrific blow. >> when katrina flooded new orleans it didn't just

destroy much of the city, it also destroyed the school system. some school reformers thought maybe that is what needed to happen. >> it was probably one of the worst school districts in the country. it was a horror. >> before katrina, our schools, i mean they were just failing. >> the choice was do you rebuild what was there or build something entirely new. >> louisiana built something new. they made it easy for people to open charters. >> you tell the state here is my plan. >> ben started a charter school called sci academy. he was the only employee. he drove his car around new orleans until 3:00 in the morning putting up signs advertising his school. >> and you see this number right here, that was my cell phone. >> he had to advertise because students had to choose to go there. they didn't just get sent here because they live nearby. >> we are putting these up everywhere. >> he went to people's houses

to recruit. >> living in new orleans we never had that. >> her son reggie goes to sci academy. >> he came out and interviewed and talked to me and then talked to reggie and was explaining to him about the hours and academics and stuff. >> when the school opened only a of the students were pressurent on state tests. now, sci academy test results are among the best in the city even though the school itself is just a bunch of trailers. >> there is a plan in my mind to have a permanent building but if you walk in a school and first thing they tell you are complaints about the facilities they are probably not focused on the right things. >> how did they do this? >> well, teachers have to perform because the principal can fire at will. >> yeah, we have at will contracts with the school. >> sharon clark runs another new orleans charter and she, too, fires the weakest teachers. >> i call it freeing up a person's future. >> the charter law also allows

parents to fire a school if they don't like this school they can send their kid to another. >> sharon needs to work hard because she worries about losing her charter. >> yes, every day, sir. >> good morning, class of 2013! >> good morning! >> the competition drives schools to try different things like this morning ritual at sci academy. >> who are you? >> education is my future and the future is now. >> why are you here? >> this seems a little cult like and some kids didn't take it seriously but something worked. >> it is an amazing difference. since he has been here he has become more sponsible. thinking. >> even though i didn't like the school at first as i went to school i started to want to go to college more because i saw how important it was. >> now, reggie's mother is getting ready to start college so reggie tutored her for a

test using skills he learned at sci. >> this is how it should have been before katrina. >> is this charter has gone from one employee into another school that is so popular it holds a lottery to decide who gets in. >> we are going to have a waiting list of 200 students long. >> this is the first by far. >> as you saw in harlem, nervous kids and relatives sit anxiously hoping their name will be called. some go away happy. >> yeah! >> most do not. >> it just goes to show, this kind of school is badly needed in the city and this kind of education is exactly what we need to be offering every single kid. >> today, most kids in new orleans attend charter schools and test scores across the city are better. >> many of the greatest cities in the world have been reborn amid crises. the chicago fire resulted in a greater chicago being built.

the san francisco earthquake resulted in a much more dynamic safer city emerging. the fire of london resulted in a much greater capital emerging. well, you know, people in new orleans are rebuilding the city for the better. >> the school of choice movement is here to stay and it will never go back. >> and next, some more good news. time from the internet. the blob should be worried because look how excited these because look how excited these kids are about math. exclusive to the military. and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. from free checking to credit cards to loans, our commitment to e military, veteransand their families is without equal. ♪ visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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do your kids have a good teacher? how do you know? maybe the teacher next door is better. maybe there is a better teacher in another state.

maybe there is the world's best teacher or several. wouldn't it be great if your kids could have that teacher? well, today, yes, you can. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> these kids are this excited about a math website. >> it is amazing. >> negative four minus four and we are done. >> taught me a lot of things. >> five years ago, hedge fund analyst sal khan created videos like these to tutor his cousin. >> that worked out well so i started tutoring her brothers and cousins and all the rest and i had to do the same lecture all over again. i had a friend who said why don't you put your lectures on you tube. i decided to give it a shot. >> welcome to the presentation on basic addition. >> soon, thousands watched his lectures. >> i started getting letters from people and comments on youtube and they are not like hey, i think this kind of might of helped on my math exam.

they are like i failed calculus the first time. i start ared watching the videos and now i'm acing the class. >> the youtube numbers kept rising and he got letters from the middle east and africa. >> what sal khan has done is amazing. >> now, he is funded by bill gates and offers web lecturers on everything from history to economics to computer science. his videos areiewed millions of times. >> even if god forbid i got about it by a bus when i walked outside it will still reach millions and maybe eventually billions of students. >> just happen to be good at teaching. >> i will take that as a compliment. >> it is a compliment. he is a great teacher. >> i hope that helps. see you in the next video. >> it is really helping us learn a lot more. >> it is exciteing that he gets kids so excited about math. >> in most parts of life, things have gotten much better, cars, computers, cell phones. education not so much. >> right, you know, you rewind,

80 or 90 or 100 years and you would have the local band that if you had a party that was the only gig in town. >> each village might have a story teller. >> exactly. >> or a sing. exactly. once you have mass media coming out they will say wait, why don't we take the best musician and actor and story teller and whatever way and record it and put it out on radio, put it out on records or whatever and i think in theory that could have happened with education before. >> but it hasn't. >> even for basic math, multiplication tables i thought they would be using video games. why not? >> they don't want to change the system. >> the blob people call it. >> what is fun from our point of view we are able to reach students outside of the blob. >> this california school district started using khan's videos in 5th grade

classrooms. the teachers were skepti skept. >> they are excited about math. it is like oh, we have math this morning. this is great. >> we asme that most people on their own don't want to learn or don't want to get engaged in mathematics. >> i think they are just frustrated because most of them are in classrooms that are not catering to them. >> at first teachers worried that the online instruction could replace them but -- >> i think it is so wrong as my teachers would tell you they have taught more math than they ever taught before. >> now, teachers can tutor kids one on one. >> i notice you were having some issues with fractions. >> you request go on your own pace. >> and because kids can go at their own pace. >> i have students working on easy multiplication. >> some kids enjoy the lessons so much they study at home. >> some of them are doing two and three hours a night at home when i'm asking for 15 minutes.

>> when i'm at home and i have time i log on. >> so finally after all of the years of kids being bored in school and not learning math, that is over? >> i think is might be. >> hope so. if it happens it will be thanks to the online classes or the charter schools or other experiments that break out of the union dominated government monopoly. let a thousand flowers bloom. it's competition that has given us better medicine and transportation, technology, everything. don't your kids deserve that, too? that is our show. i'm john stossel. captioned by closed captnininii let's design a vacation on a bumake it work.edia. see what anandra did? booking her flight and hotel at the same time a serious money-saving maneuver. book it! major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. there's anotheway to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats.

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